New Grantees for 2025
The ITHC is pleased to present the new recipients of Awards in 2025, in addition to continuations of projects from previous years on our Awards History page and Grantees for specific prior years.
Healthy Physician Foundation - Dr. Cesar A. Caceres Innovation in Healthcare Technology Award
2025 Recipient: Caretaker Medical
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Caretaker Medical is a digital health company based in Charlottesville, VA that is focused on developing continuous patient monitoring platforms that improve outcomes, increase clinician productivity and maximize patient compliance and comfort. Our VitalStream platform is the world's only FDA-cleared wireless, wearable cardiac output and non-invasive blood pressure monitor. It merges intuitive, user-friendly technology with the clinical accuracy needed from an acute-care hemodynamic monitor. Data can be visualized on a tablet or smartphone interface, transmitted to hospital EMRs, or uploaded to a secure cloud interface for remote patient monitoring.
Community Memorial Health Systems
To integrate technology with patient care, aiming to enhance overall healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Facilitating Bedside-Initiated Virtual Nurse Consultations: The project aims to simplify the process of initiating virtual nurse consultations, enabling patients to effortlessly request them from their bedside using a Bluetooth remote. This initiative promotes patient
autonomy and convenience, ensuring that patients have easy access to virtual care services. Ensuring Visual Intuitiveness and Patient Privacy: Visual intuitiveness and patient privacy are paramount throughout the virtual consultation process. The project ensures that transitions to virtual consultations are visually intuitive for both patients and nurses. Moreover, patient consent and privacy are upheld, emphasizing sensitivity and respect for patient rights. Providing Comprehensive Virtual Nursing Services: Virtual nurses play a crucial role in conducting assessments, engaging in discussions, providing education, and addressing patient needs during consultations. The project aims to deliver high-quality care remotely, guided by the expertise and compassion of the virtual nursing team, ensuring that patients receive comprehensive support and guidance.
American Society of Hematology
Illumina BaseSpace: Strengthening Genomic Research in ICAL: to enhance the diagnostic capabilities of the International Consortium on Acute Leukemia (ICAL) in under-resourced Latin American countries. The funds will support the purchase and implementation of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) software from Illumina, enabling advanced genomic research. Installed on 12 computers across six hospitals, a five-year subscription will ensure sustainability, allowing time to transition to independent funding. The project will also build local biostatistical analysis capacity, essential for interpreting genomic data. Comprehensive training for lab scientists is included, with Dr. Melissa Rijken from Erasmus University leading a 2025 workshop in Montevideo, Uruguay, followed by bi-monthly virtual sessions, empowering ICAL labs to improve diagnosis and treatment decisions.
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Emory University School of Medicine
Using AI to Create Equity in Oncology Treatment - The Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute (Emory AI.Health) uses
artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve healthcare outcomes globally, with a particular focus on pursuing equity in the benefits that AI Innovation brings to the field of oncology. Funding from the foundation will support research on Triple Negative Breast Cancer, specifically to support the creation of accurate prognostic tests for black and brown women with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC).
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Diagnostic and prognostic models (determining your diagnosis and your likelihood of success on a particular therapeutic) have been built through research almost universally white/caucasian individuals. The result is that these tests are less accurate for individuals who are brown or black. The result is less accuracy, especially in prognostics meaning that black and
brown individuals are more likely to endure ineffective treatment (chemo, immunotherapy) because prognostic models are inaccurate for their population. Emory's AI.Health Institute is currently using AI and machine learning to build far more accurate models for black and brown individuals with a cancer diagnosis.